Fox pulls 'Family Guy' episode following Boston bombings

This image released by Fox shows characters from the Fox animated series, "Family Guy." Fox is pulling from websites an episode of "Family Guy" that depicts mass deaths at the Boston Marathon and has no immediate plans to air it again. Fox spokeswoman Gaude Paez says the episode has been removed from Fox.com and Hulu.com. (AP Photo/Fox)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Fox television on Tuesday pulled a recent episode of animated series "Family Guy" from television and Internet sites after unrelated clips that were edited together to depict a bombing at the Boston Marathon went viral on the Web.

"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane slammed the mash-up as "abhorrent." It appeared a day after two bombs ripped through the crowd at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding 176.

A Fox spokeswoman said the network had pulled the "Turban Cowboy" episode of the satirical series "Family Guy" from Fox.com and Hulu.com and from being rebroadcast, and that network officials were working with YouTube to take down the edited clips. It was not known who posted them.

The edited video showed two separate clips fused together from the "Turban Cowboy" episode, which aired in March, in which lead character Peter Griffin drunkenly drives over runners in order to win the Boston Marathon.

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Later in the episode, in an unconnected storyline, Peter unknowingly becomes friends with an extremist who gives him a cellphone, which Peter calls and explosions are heard.

In the video that went viral, the two scenes were put together to make it appear that the explosions happened at the Boston race.

"The edited Family Guy clip currently circulating is abhorrent. The event was a crime and a tragedy, and my thoughts are with the victims," MacFarlane, who voices characters on the show including Peter, wrote on Twitter.

Television networks and movie studios frequently review material that might be considered sensitive or offensive after national tragedies like the Newton, Connecticut, school shootings in December and Superstorm Sandy in October 2012.